The Takygraf - the extreme fastspeed writing machine
- Malling-Hansen's brilliant invention from 1872 - the Takygraf - the fastest typewriter ever made. Photocopy: Carsten Erik Noe
- The Takygraf seen from above. Because of these pictures we know that at least one specimen of the Takygraf was made. Where it is today, nobody knows. Photocopy: Carsten Erik Noe
In 1872 Rasmus Malling-Hansen invented a truly extraordinary new writing machine - the Takygraf. His intention with this machine was to make a typewriter that could write with the same speed as one can talk and Malling-Hansen hoped that the Takygraf would be used for stenography in the National Assembly and other places where they were in need of short hand writing. The writing speed of the Takygraf could reach as much as 1200 characters pr minute.
But as with many of Malling-Hansen's inventions, the Takygraf never became the success he had hoped for, and even though we know that there was made at least one Takygraf - we now nothing about the destiny of this machine. Was it ever in use? Where is it today? These are questions we hope to find the answers to in the future.
Vicepresident in the Malling-Hansen Society, Dieter Eberwein, who has studied the Takygraf-patent very thoroughly, writes this about the function of the Takygraf:
The first Takygraf from 1872 was combined with a writing ball but the bottom of each piston forms a blunt point and so it forms only impressions in the paper. The paper band was prepared to conduct electricity. Under the paper band there were metal points which were connected to electromagnets. The form impressions in the paper band are brought in contact with the fixed metal points under the paper as the paper moves along and so the corresponding electromagnets are brought into action. When the electromagnets attracted the keepers, then the types made their impressions on the paper band (through the invention of a colored or carbonized strip of paper).
In the year 1874 follows a modified Takygraf combined with a writing ball but instead of the prepared paper (to conduct electricity) and the form impressions in the paper Rasmus Malling-Hansen developed a mechanical memory-unit, which contacts the electromagnets in the right time to make the needed type impressions on the paper band. It was possible to write with this brilliant invention as fast as we talk.
30.11.06
Dieter Eberwein and Sverre Avnskog